The Jungle is Neutral

click here for more details, find new or used items	Spencer F. Chapman Our price £6.99 (£8.99) New from £4.37 Used from £4.35 Pages: (Paperback) ISBN: 184341029X Pub: Birlinn Ltd Pub date: 2006-05-01 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 52593

Reader Reviews:

Patchy (0/0 people found this helpful)

The early part of this book is really absorbing, as the author relates how he raised merry hell behind the lines of the Japanese advance down the Malayan peninsula. He blew up trains, he blew up railway lines, he blew up bridges and he also learnt to stuff bamboo stems full of explosive and leave them innocently lying in the road, where he blew them up remotely when a suitably-laden Japanese truck drove over them. He would then mow down a few of the survivors and disappear into the jungle.

After not very long, however, and of course after the fall of Singapore, his access to sabotage weaponry disappeared. At that point, at liberty in occupied Malaya, he was able to do very little and he spent the next three years essentially living rough in the jungle and trying to train the locals in the techniques of guerilla warfare.

The pace of the book slackens off badly at this stage because very little really happens. Reading between the lines, this must have been an absolutely desperate time in the author's life. He was separated from his friends and allies, had no sources of supply or even escape, and was reliant for shelter from the Japanese on local Chinese and aborigines.

In fact, he spend much of the next three years trudging from one jungle camp to another and trying to keep body (and one assumes mind) together. The book powerfully makes the point that the jungle is just about the most hostile place you could choose to live. The health of those who tried to do so was every bit as bad as that of those imprisoned in Japanese PoW camps. He also makes some interesting points about the importance of face saving in the local community, to the extent that Chinese guerilla leaders would refuse to attend lectures on jungle fighting tactics in case it looked to their men like they didn't know what they were doing.

Eventually, as the tide turns, the author starts to get a bit more involved again. His was certainly a remarkable feat of survival but it speaks volumes about what a tough struggle the Far Eastern campaigns were that it took this man pretty well all his efforts for three years just to survive - and that just barely.

Classic (2/3 people found this helpful)

A must read for anyone interested in Malayan military history, particularly the Japanese occupation and the Malayan Emergency. Also relevant to anyone that will be operating in the jungle at some point.

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